


Visor

by BunanTsokolatte



Series: Isobel Shepard [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: BioWare, Bunan Tsokolatte, BunanTsokolatte, Drabble, F/M, Mass Effect 2, One Shot, One True Pairing, Shakarian - Freeform, Turians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:54:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1190934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunanTsokolatte/pseuds/BunanTsokolatte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrus inquires about Shepard’s Kuwashii Visor as they lay in bed together after their first “reach and flexibility” session on the way to the Omega-4 Relay. Features my Isobel “Iz” Shepard (Ruthless, Renegade-turned-Paragon, Colonist Soldier). Oneshot. Very drabbly. Mature-ish content. First completed/published "Mass Effect" fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Visor

**Author's Note:**

> A little backstory to put this one into context: Garrus and Iz had unconfessed feelings for each other during the events of ME1. Iz asked about Garrus first when talking to TIM and, upon hearing that his location was unknown, went to recruit Archangel first (“Why him first, Shepard?” “He has the coolest name out of all these dossiers.”). She impulsively bought a Kuwashii Visor from Harrot’s Emporium as a reminder of him, wherever he might be.

“Can I ask you something?” he says quietly, as if not wanting to disturb the sound of their breathing.

“What is it?” Shepard asks wearily, her eyes closed as she strokes one of Garrus’s cheeks with a hand.

“The visor…” he starts, nodding towards the contraption eyeing them from her nightstand. “When did you get it?”

“I found it at a shop on Omega. Harrot’s Emporium. Right before I signed up as a freelancer to find you, actually.”

“But why a visor? I know how much you love your assault rifles and pistols and you rarely use your sniper rifle unless you have to.”

Shepard was quiet for a moment and finally opened her lavender eyes to find his azure ones seeking an answer. “It...reminded me of you,” she said finally.

She fell silent, her lips pressed together as she tried to word her next thoughts. Garrus watched her as her eyes darted around as she looked for her next words and he nuzzled his head gently against hers in reassurance.

“When Cerberus gave me dossiers on people to recruit for my team,” she began,“there wasn’t anyone from the first Normandy among them, especially not you. When I asked about everyone, you were the only one that couldn’t be located. And it scared the hell outta me.” Shepard sighed. A little more quietly, she continued, “I figured you weren’t dead but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of not being able to find you. Or if I did, despite what I thought, if you’d somehow managed to…”

Shepard faltered and Garrus felt her tense up slightly. He tugged her a little closer, drinking in her words.

“When I saw what it looked like, I felt my heart just…hurt. I couldn’t figure out why until I realized it looked like yours. It’s even the same brand. I didn’t even bother haggling for a discount. I bought it the moment I saw it and put it on right away. Miranda and Jacob were confused about why I bought it. But I thought, who knows?” she said rhetorically, shrugging. “Maybe it would’ve let me spot you better if I did find you. I guess it worked with the way my heart leapt when I looked up at that sniper and hoped to hell it was you,” she scoffed.

Garrus chuckled. “Same goes to you. I was starting to slack a little when you found me.”

Another scoff. “A little?”

He made a small, scolding nip at her jawline which only elicited a gasped giggle from her, not that he minded as his mouth immediately curved into a turian smile. “Your new accessory helped me too, actually. When I looked into the scope and saw your face, I thought to myself ‘I must really be losing my edge here if I’m hallucinating her face again.’”

Shepard’s eyes locked on his and she gulped audibly. Hallucinations? _Again?_

His eyes fixed on her when he heard the noise but he continued, “But when I saw that visor…”

_He was keeping a close watch on his ammo, having grabbed as many heat clips as he could before running upstairs where he could get a good view. But his supply was running short. Only one spare clip laid at his feet now as he shot at another freelancer only to miss his head with an uneasy, last minute shake of his hand. He cursed at himself and took aim again, this time getting his target and watching him crumple to the ground lifeless._

_Garrus prostrated himself against the wall in cover, catching his breath and shaking his head awake. He had been holding that gun up for so damn long his strength was starting to give out. He needed to push through but it was a lie to think that he was guaranteed to get out alive. He took a cleansing breath, gathering his resolve once more, and looked up for a moment. He pretended he could see the stars through the ceiling above him, the stars where the Normandy was, where the crew was. Where she definitely was. He had come here to make her proud, to cut down that red tape and make a difference in the world like she had always encouraged him to. He only hoped it was enough._

“ _Shepard….hope you won’t be too pissed at me…but I might be joining you sooner than I thought,”’ he whispered, finding his center as he closed his eyes for a moment to imagine her strong, smirking face. “I’ll make it count.”_

_Determined to go out with a bang, he threw himself out of cover and took aim at the first merc he could find. Headshot. Down. He swung his rifle to the other side of the bridge, taking out another merc. Back to the other side. He took aim._

_But his heart stopped. For in the scope was a ghost. The woman he just spoke to from beyond the grave. In a getup he never remembered her wearing from their days chasing Saren. A sleek, crimson hardsuit fitted to her lithe but powerful form. But the N7 logo, the hand signals she gave the two with her, that chocolate covered hair bunched up in a ball at the top of her head, those were the same._

_He swung his rifle to the other side and back to make sure he wasn’t just seeing her everywhere, like he had sometimes when he was alone. But sure enough, she was still there taking cover behind that box. And looking at him through the scope were two blazing flames of lavender that had haunted him in his wake and in his sleep for two years. Though one of those flames was obscured by a shining headpiece of blue not dissimilar to his own._

_For a moment, he chuckled to himself. He often thought of what kind of gift to get for his commander and closest friend whom he was so thankful for, whom he had realized he cared for more than anything in this whole damn galaxy. Why didn’t he think of a visor? As much as his heart beat for his superior officer, he publicly teased her for her lousy sniping at every opportunity. A visor would’ve been practical, thoughtful…downright sweet, maybe, he hoped. And it was this pleasant surprise that made him conclude that this woman in his sight was no ghost. She was flesh and blood (and cybernetics, as he would find out later) and she was here for him. Shepard and Vakarian walking in, guns blazing, with matching visors…that was the kind of sight he could get used to._

_He just had to make sure she was real first. So loaded a concussive shot, adjusting his aim ever so slightly, the crosshairs lining up just next to her ear, and pulled the trigger. She saw her lean away quickly from the point of impact and her eyebrows furrowed together in annoyance. Her lips curved into her familiar grimace and he couldn’t help the laugh of amazement that burst through him. Everything about the way her face changed…it was all her. The same look she would give him when he was taking aim from behind her and had taken out something in front of her with the bullet just grazing her. And so, he shifted his scope from her to further down the bridge where the mercs had turned their attention from firing at him to firing at her party._

“ _They’re with Archangel!” he heard one of the mercs call._

_Damn straight she was with him. And damn him if Archangel didn’t look out for the woman he loved and grieved for like the celestial being he was supposed to be._

“…I dared to hope it had something to do with me. You never had that visor before when we were on the first Normandy. It…distracted me. Had to take a real good look at you before I could take the shot. See if the eyes I saw were really those glowing purple ones,” he noted, taking a moment to stare into said eyes and watch her cheeks color under his gaze. “And when I took the shot near your head and you flinched away, every moment in your face, the fire that I saw in your eyes, the scowl you made, the way your eyebrows furrowed…there was no way it couldn't be you. And if out of all the romantic things I’d dared to imagine about you, I couldn’t imagine having matching visors, that part had to be real.”

Shepard gave a weak smile to him, touched by what he’d said but still perturbed by what he said before. “You said...you had hallucinations of me?” she asked him tentatively.

Garrus shifted, tensing slightly as he sighed. “Sometimes. You died. It had an effect,” he deadpanned with a single, bitter chuckle. “Tell me, Shepar—Iz—” he corrected himself, “why do you think I went to Omega?”

She gulped nervously. “I thought you said you were getting tired of all the politics on the Citadel?” Shepard said quietly, looking up at him through her dark lashes.

Garrus sighed again, a long, drawn-out breath. “You really think that’s all?”

“Well, that’s what you told me.”

Another sigh. And a talon cupping her cheek. “Shepard, you _died_ ,” he said quietly, strained, his voice barely above a whisper. “Can you even comprehend what that did to me?”

Shepard swallowed and prepared herself for the story, her purple eyes searching his face where his jaw became tight.

Another sigh to collect his thoughts. “When you found me on the Citadel, I could feel my life finally starting. Those days hunting Saren were some of the most meaningful days of my life. I was making a difference, ripping through the rules and regulations and serving justice to the worst criminals. And I couldn’t be more grateful to you for taking me with you, to helping me bring the justice to Saren and Dr. Saleon that I couldn’t do alone behind the red tape at C-Sec. You became—and you still are—the most important person in my life. You inspired me to take action, to finally take things into my own hands and to reassess my morals in the process. With the talks that we had and seeing you at your best and your worst and trusting me to see those sides of you, I knew you were special and that I would follow you into Hell and back, and that I cared about you more and more with each day.

“When I heard that you died, I lost purpose. My reason for fighting was _gone._ And I had to hear it from Anderson when I should’ve been there, when I could’ve saved you. When Joker told me it was because you were getting him out, I was furious and I blamed him for all of it. I couldn’t eat, sleep, or think. And if C-Sec wasn’t already cutting my patience short, you dying certainly didn’t help. All my work there had even less taste than it did before. In fact, it was at C-Sec where those hallucinations started.

Garrus paused. “I was going on a simple run to bring down some dealers trying to smuggle red sand onto the Citadel. I followed them to a warehouse and peeked around a corner to get a shot at them.” He stopped, taking a deep breath, and Iz felt her blood going cold. “I saw you, standing right there, just staring at me, not even saying anything. I was distracted and out of cover too long. They saw me and started to shoot. I ducked back into cover and by the time I came back out, you were gone.”

Shepard cupped his cheek and began to stroke it with her thumb as he continued, “It was worse at night, especially on Omega. I didn't have the squad or our missions to occupy me when I would try to sleep. I would see you anywhere. Sitting on a couch, leaning against a wall, sitting on the edge of my bed. And you wouldn't say anything, but I'd talk to you, telling you about my day, about my missions, about the reputation I seemed to be building.” A pause. “And...I would tell you how sorry I was, that you shouldn't have died, that I should've been there watching your six. I told you that over and over again when the mercs started coming after me.

“But then you came for me and I didn't know what to say. I was just processing the fact that you were alive.”

“ _Archangel?”_

_Garrus's heart stopped at that familiar, deep voice. He stopped her to take out a straggler before walking to her, giving himself a chance to sit down, ground himself, prepare himself for whatever he was about to encounter. He set down his rifle and removed his helmet tiredly, feeling reenergized as he smiled to himself and saw her clearly for the first time in two years._

“ _Shepard…I thought you were dead.”_

_Shepard’s commander face shifted immediately into uncharacteristic surprise. Her eyes widened and, if Garrus was still making sense through his fatigue, they seemed to glisten with a veil of wetness that began clouding them. Her gaping mouth broke into a wide smile and she was sprinting towards him without a second thought._

“ _Garrus!” she shouted with more happiness than Jacob and Miranda were used to in the time they’d known her and studied her._

_Without realizing it, Garrus’s arms had been ready to catch her and he let out an “Oomph!” as she unceremoniously threw her arms around him. A tired laugh of relief rumbled through him as he wrapped his arms tight around her, pulling her flush against him and latching his fingers around the left curve of her waist and the mound of her right shoulder. Her arms were locked so tight around his waist that Garrus marveled at her strength of making it difficult for an armored turian to breathe. She buried her face in his armored chest and Garrus tucked her head beneath his chin. Her clean, floral smell from her bath products wafted pleasantly into his nostrils accompanied with the all too familiar scent of gunfire, dirt, and human sweat. They stayed there for a moment, reveling in the fact that the other was solid, breathing flesh and that they were feeling each other’s warmth after so much uncertainty that they never would again._

_They caught up as best as they could in the oncoming, endless influx of mercs approaching the base, fighting the waves that came in. When they could, Shepard and Vakarian couldn't help but sneak peeks at each other. It had been so long since they fought together and they couldn't help the joy bubbling in their chests at each familiar stance and look of concentration._

_And then, she saw the missile strike._

_Shepard felt the air sucked out of her, barely hearing herself yell his name as she rushed over to him. The sight of him lying in his own puddle of blue blood and gasping for air, his bright blue eyes wide flickering around the room in distress, twisted her heart._

“ _Goddammit, Garrus, look at me! Don’t you dare close your eyes, you fucking asshole!”_

_Despite her attempts, her chest tightened up in pain and tears quickly filled her eyes._

“ _You have to fight through this. I am not losing you, not after I just found you,” she whispered, the rare hint of desperation coloring her voice._

_She hadn't realized she had grabbed his hand and it was her touch, the feel of her warm and alive in his hand, that kept him awake until they got back to the Normandy. Chawkas was ushering her out the moment they brought Garrus in, insisting that she have her space to be able to work on him. It took every ounce of Shepard's will power to bite back the impulsive “Fuck that, Chakwas!” that was just about to pass her lips. But with cleansing breaths, she needed to remember that he would be healed more efficiently without her here, that she needed to be the commander that knew what her team needed. And so, with a reluctant nod, Shepard backed out of the med bay, taking a good look at her unconscious friend on the stretcher, and silently praying to no one that it wouldn't be the last, before the doors closed on her._

_The sight of him alive and walking through the doors of the comm room with that proud stance made her smirk in pride and relief. The person that mattered most to her was alive and had survived a missile to the_ face. _And they would be together again, fighting for the fate of the galaxy. Just like old times._

“At least I can say it to you in person now, before we head into hell again,” Garrus said softly. Shepard felt his three fingers of one of his hands reach between them to clutch her hand nestled near her breasts.

“I'm so sorry, Iz,” Garrus began, and Shepard sadly had full knowledge that he had recited these words with so much practice like a speech before a big event. “If I hadn't left, you may not have died. I should've been there, watching your six where I was supposed to be. Instead, I left for my own pursuits and now even those have failed. I'm a failure, Iz, and I failed you in the worst way--”

“Hey,” Iz interrupted, placing a hand on his mouth plates to silence him before returning her hand to his cheek. “You haven't failed me. It's not like you just up and left after we fought Saren. You told me you wanted to pursue becoming a Spectre and that you'd come back to help me after you were done. I let you go, Garrus. I wanted you to come into your own and choose your path, a chance that wasn't available to you before I recruited you. You helped people on Omega and pulled yourself from this pit of revenge after finding Sidonis. I couldn't be more proud of you,” she said, smiling at him. “Besides, you're here now. You kept your promise to come back. How could you fail me in that?”

Garrus let out a breathy chuckle, relief and happiness washing through him as he curled an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, nudging his forehead against hers. “Well, I had a bit of help,” he whispered against her mouth.

Shepard smiled up at him, taking a moment to enjoy the feeling of his forehead against hers, and then decided to scoot herself up so she was sitting against the headboard. Garrus, curious and disappointed at the sudden lack of contact, propped himself up too, sitting across from her towards the edge of the bed. In the soft glow of the lamp, Garrus admired her soft, curvy form which was half uncovered now as the blanket slide down to her hips. He was still amused at how lithe her arms were beneath the uniform but he hadn’t minded the way she shivered when he grazed his mandibles against that long slender neck and those sensitive shoulders.

The breasts he was so confused about before had become one of the top items on the list of things about her that were quick to arouse him. He was beginning to see the fuss was about among humans and asari-lovers. He had been awkwardly grazing his talons along them when Shepard placed her hands over his to show him how to knead and stroke them. He had elicited the most beautiful moans and gasps from her when he got creative about her nipples, intrigued at how they quickly shrunk when he grazed his teeth gently along the edges and lapped the tip fully along the length of his long tongue until it reached the end. Seeing those nipples full and soft now only made him want to explore more ideas on what he could do with them.

His eyes trailed to the curve of her waist which, indeed, was very supportive when he used it as a place to grip onto when he finally pushed himself inside of her. He found his fingers thumbing against soft flesh but with hardened muscle beneath. Garrus had watched closely as Shepard’s shining purple eyes kept fluttering, struggling to keep eye contact with him. But she gave up, gave in, and let those eyes roll back and close, the moan of his name on those soft lips. He couldn’t help but tighten his grip on that waist, feeling himself engulfed by a tight, slick warmth he had never experienced before. He lowered himself to feel her heated body pressed up flush against his own, to feel every inch of her body in contact with his as he moved into her hot core and groaned her name into her neck.

That memory made him gaze down at her legs where she was covered just barely up to the hip with blanket. The sight of the soft brown hair down there amused him, yet he found himself enjoying the texture of it with each move inside her, in addition to the soft skin the little patch covered up. Shepard had guided his hand there to softly stroke the little nub down there—the clitoris, she had called it—and he loved how those tiny movements brought her so close to the edge. He loved the feeling of her hand around his lubricated length, guiding the tip of it to her entrance. He had been afraid he would really hurt her. It seemed too small, too narrow. And yet, it engulfed him perfectly, and it was wetter, warmer, and tighter than any turian female's whose anatomies were already sized to his. How could the inside be so much softer than her skin? He tried to hide the moments where he would look at where he was sliding inside her but he knew he was caught when he looked back up to find her doing that husky laugh and amused smirk. He had his revenge with a harder thrust that melted her expression back into one of complete pleasure. And nothing beat the way her insides clenched and fluttered around him when she orgasmed, begging him to fall over the edge too, her legs around his waist pulling him even closer.

His reverie was broken by the familiar blue light shining from his visor coming from straight ahead of him. He looked up and saw Shepard adjusting the visor on her head over her left eye as Garrus did. Well, to the best of her ability. Garrus’s head was much larger than Shepard’s so she ended up holding the middle of it against the side of her head while the rest of the visor rocked awkwardly in front of her face until she pinned her other hand closer to the front of the visor. It took her a moment to adjust to the various icons and readings animating on the screen. Scanners, files, readings, and Garrus’s eye coming out from behind them, studying her through the lens.

She chuckled. “So this is what the world looks like through your eyes, huh?” She fiddled with the zoom buttons, locking in on Garrus’s still face, blue eyes locking with hers. The visor brought up more random readings and stats but her uncovered eye only saw her handsome turian staring back at her, his jaw hung slightly open as he stared at her. It was so piercing she suddenly felt uncertain and nervous under his gaze. Her first reaction was to laugh. “Well, one of your eyes, anyway.” Dramatically, she raised her chin a little and positioned her hands holding up the visor like models she’d seen holding up their hair. “How do I look?”

She had intended her question to be comedic. Her model pose was anything but serious. But Garrus was staring at her in an entirely un-joking fashion. He didn’t need his visor to appraise how enticing this image was.

Suddenly, walking into hell seemed as easy as calibrations. They had one of the most powerful, if not _the_ most powerful, ship in the galaxy with the most versatile team led by the best damn leader. If it was anyone that could eliminate these Collectors once and for all, it was them. He had something more to fight for. The sexiest, most beautiful sight sat before him in this moment: his commander, his most trusted friend, and, finally, his lover giving him a bright smile reserved just for him, lavender eyes shining at him in endearment, her warm, glowing form bared before him in nothing but his visor, pinned against her head with unsure, powerful hands. Isobel Shepard, the woman that survived Mindoir, topped the N7 program, saved the Citadel, and bested death was his now. When the Reapers came for them and the galaxy put its fate in her hands, he would be there to watch her six and walk hand-in-hand in her into hell once more. With matching visors, of course.

“Perfect,” he finally breathed, coming up from the wave of determination that speared him.

It was her turn to hold her breath and stare at him. She dropped her raised model chin and looked at him through lowered eyes, a dark flame growing in them as he crawled towards her. She felt the silliest grin spread across her face as her eyes flickered over his naked form, so un-human and new but thrilling to look at and remember how it molded against hers. They were face to face, hot breaths of anticipation falling upon each other’s faces as his talon slowly plucked the visor from her hands. He never dared break his gaze with her as he gently pried it from her hands and set it on the bedside table next to hers, both visors spying on them as they tried a kiss once more. This time, his puckered, turian mouth managed to find the place to cling at against hers. When he attempted to sneak his tongue in, he drank in Shepard’s pretty little sigh and he felt his plates stir between his legs.

He broke away before he went further. “EDI,” he called out hastily, his face turning towards her post by the fish tanks. He felt faintly self-conscious in front of EDI, only barely stifling a groan as Shepard began pressing feather kisses down his scar.

“Yes, Officer Vakarian?” EDI replied.

“How much more time ‘til we hit the relay?”

“ETA 40 minutes.”

“Dismissed,” he said quickly, turning his attention to grazing his teeth along Shepard’s neck, the commander shivering at the touch.

“Logging you out.”

“What do you have in mind?” Shepard asked breathily, running her hands along his plated chest.

She gasped as he pushed her back down onto the bed, both taloned hands intertwined with her fingers. She felt herself clench as he stared down at her hard, his mandibles spreading into what looked like a wicked grin as his subharmonics dropped an octave and rumbled, “Round 2.”

**Author's Note:**

> I FINALLY FINISHED A SHAKARIAN ONE SHOTTTTTTTTT. HALLELUJAHHHHHHHH. THIS IS A BIG DEAL FOR ME. I HAVE A HARD TIME FINISHING THINGS. I really wanted to finish a Shakarian or Shrios fic because so many of them are unfinished. And it’s Valentine’s Day so I wanted to celebrate it by finishing one. Sorry if it feels rushed and if the wording/tense changes abruptly as you read! I knew what I wanted to write for the longest time to fill in the holes. It was just figuring out how to go about writing and wording them that took forever. And I was trying to finish it before midnight. Which I did but if it spills over into Saturday, at least it’s between Valentine’s Day and Shakarian Sunday! Anyway, hope you all had a happy Valentine’s Day and I hope you enjoy my creation!


End file.
